Reasons for not receiving an interview?

So that dreaded moment has arrived. I was unfortunately not granted an interview and neither was a friend of mine.

We filled in our applications together and had the same person review our statement of purpose. Of course a few things differed on our applications such as our study directions (psychology and fashion design majors) and the fact that she has a TEFL certificate and I don't, but I have tutoring and childcare experience whereas she doesn't. She has much more international experience than me.

I'm not sure if any of that information matters, but this way you have a bit of background. Point is, I want to know what would be the most likely reasons to not be granted an interview and if there is a way to improve on these factors?

Re: Reasons for not receiving an interview?

Originally Posted by toast

So that dreaded moment has arrived. I was unfortunately not granted an interview and neither was a friend of mine.

We filled in our applications together and had the same person review our statement of purpose. Of course a few things differed on our applications such as our study directions (psychology and fashion design majors) and the fact that she has a TEFL certificate and I don't, but I have tutoring and childcare experience whereas she doesn't. She has much more international experience than me.

I'm not sure if any of that information matters, but this way you have a bit of background. Point is, I want to know what would be the most likely reasons to not be granted an interview and if there is a way to improve on these factors?

Thank you in advance for your time!

Sorry you weren't given an interview

Huh, I mean it's kind of anyone's guess, unless it's something major like criminal history or that kind of thing... Kind of surprised that the certification didn't make it, I'd think that'd be a large boon. Do you mind sharing the general theme of your SOP? I've heard that things like "It's always been my dream" and or "I wanna live in Japan forever." are usually seen as negative points.

Re: Reasons for not receiving an interview?

Probably you both didn't read the instructions correctly and made the exact same clerical error.

It might sound stupid, but that's one of their quickest ways to thin the early crowd.

Originally Posted by Cytrix

Organising anything with ALTs is like herding cats on catnip

Originally Posted by Antonath

We Jeeperneez are express all emotion through money. Wedding is happy money. Funeral is sad money. Izakaya is friendship money. Girl-bar is almost-sex money. But babby-borning is bery happy money, as no babby in Japan. All babby is special so we is givings much money as presento for babby.

Re: Reasons for not receiving an interview?

^this. Also I hate to say it, but I've seen 'overqualified' people not make because they're more likely to stay in Japan after there stint and that's not what the program wants.

But I'm agreeing with Giz here. The program says otherwise, but with so many applications, the third time one comes across your desk with the same clerical error, you're going to bin it, even if it's something stupid like your signature page is in the wrong order.

Originally Posted by Lianwen

I am a competent, semifunctioning adult of modest landwhale proportions.

Originally Posted by Ini

how many more threads in which BJ declares his love for lianwen do we need?

Re: Reasons for not receiving an interview?

Also, a butterfly flapped its wings in Madagascar.

The application/interview is the most mysterious as far as selection goes. All it means is that somebody in the Japanese gov't didn't like your application for some reason or another, "valid," nebulous, or otherwise.

Try again next year if you want - but don't let it wear on you too much. The goals of the JET program are nebulous at best, and that makes the application requirements equally vague.

Re: Reasons for not receiving an interview?

Yeah I'm pretty sure I didn't mention teaching in my app. Anyway, without seeing your application and SOP no one can really offer any useful feedback. It may be that you made an obvious mistake that you might not realize, there might be some kind of "alarm bell" sentence in your covering letter etc.

I'd advise against getting into the mindset that the application process is completely arbitrary. You're just denying yourself the opportunity to improve.

Re: Reasons for not receiving an interview?

I was talking with a dude at a dinner at the local Japanese consulate. He said he used to work for the Japanese embassy in Ottawa and that he did a lot of their Jet Programme work.

He told me that one of the most common reasons applications for JET get rejected in Canada is that people staple the pages of the app together when the instructions clearly state that you should not do so.

Originally Posted by Ini

Teach them something new?? Are you mad? All you do in Japan is rehash the same stuff over and over for 15 years. Hello song, what do you like sports? and fruit basket. The holy trinity of English education.

Re: Reasons for not receiving an interview?

Not so sure about number 3. I'd never been in a classroom in years and my international "experience" stretched as far as chasing Eastern European skirt whilst inter-railing.

I guess that doesn't always matter.

I suppose I meant the sections for international experience and travel, teaching, language classes, etc all count for a certain amount of points and if you have absolutely nothing in any of the categories then you're going to miss out on points.

I think you can get to the interview stage just fine (or even through to the program) but I have been involved in interviews where the panel wasn't really super keen on candidates that had no experience to offer with any combination of travel/exchange/teaching/tutoring/Japan in general.

Re: Reasons for not receiving an interview?

I was talking with a dude at a dinner at the local Japanese consulate. He said he used to work for the Japanese embassy in Ottawa and that he did a lot of their Jet Programme work.

He told me that one of the most common reasons applications for JET get rejected in Canada is that people staple the pages of the app together when the instructions clearly state that you should not do so.

Either the Canadian embassy handles applications very differently than the US or that guy was fucking with you. There's a whole team of people who put your application in order, take out/put in staples or paperclips where necessary, make copies, etc. before it even gets to the person reviewing it.

Like everyone else has said - a clerical error of some kind (usually transcript related) gets rid of almost a quarter of applicants right off the bat. If you have any kind of criminal history or a major medical thing it could be that as well.

But, and it's not a satisfying answer, some people are overall good candidates, but they just don't quite have enough there. If you have just a decent SOP, a little bit of international experience, a touch of Japanese language experience, that kind of thing, sometimes they just don't add up to enough to get you through.